Pipestone, Minnesota

The Calumet Inn
Pipestone Indian Peacepipe
Typical House With No Fence

After we left Betty at her cabin yesterday, we had a 5 hr drive south to our current location in the south west corner of the state. We drove past numerous lakes which makes sense considering that Minnesota is famous for the number of its lakes. We are now in the small town of Pipestone which is renowned for native Sioux quartzite quarries in this area. Most of the buildings in the town centre are built using a distinctive local quartzite stone. One example is the Calumet Inn (pictured) which was built in 1888 and at the time it was known as the 'finest hotel in Southwestern Minnesota'. It has been such a glorious day here (24C/75F) that we decided to ride our bikes the 7 blocks from our campground into town, and had dinner at the Inn. Near our campground is the Pipestone National Monument where an active quarry still operates and only American Indians are entitled to quarry the stone from which they craft peacepipes and other carvings.

The third photo I have included shows you a nice house in this town, and like most American homes, it has no fence. You see fences out in the country to mark off fields and property boundaries, but most houses we see as we are driving around do not have any front fences. From our experience, most dogs live and sleep inside the family home, so that may explain the lack of fences.